Top Ten Beauty Channels on YouTube

Submitted by Meg Wilson on September 12, 2008 - 06:24.

Beauty makeovers are a popular topic on YouTube. Here's an overview of the top beauty channels you will find on YouTube today.

Ford Models Media is the clear leader as far as the largest number of total views are concerned. They grasped the potential of an international YouTube audience very early on. They started creating short videos in September 2006 and they've uploaded almost 600 videos since then. Just their top three videos account for over seven million views. Ford Models is one of several leading modeling agencies but they've left all the other agencies in the dust when it comes to their early adoption of new media. Their business plan for YouTube videos seems to be to pay as low as $200 per video produced. We guess their models, hairdressers, make-up artists and camera people are already paid staff and do not get extra compensation for the production of these videos.

Expert Village gets second place in terms of total views in the beauty 'how to' category on YouTube. It's hard to know exactly how big they are in the beauty realm because their focus is on a much broader topic, the whole 'how to' category. Expert Village is a very interesting new model for online video production. They invite anyone to come and make videos for them on any 'how to' topic. If they like your video, they will encourage you to make many more. They pay their independent producers about $300 on average per video uploaded. The best videos can make up to $1,000 for the freelance producers and $200 is the minimum take. They don't offer any royalties for successful videos as far as we can tell. They launched on YouTube in April 2006 and have put out an astounding 88,500 videos so far. They're owned by Demand Media and raised many millions in venture capital funding in order to finance this video production as quickly as possible. See an interesting read about these new media titans at Demand Media here.

So these are the two biggest 'corporate' players in the beauty 'how to' space on YouTube. But let's get to the list of the top 10 beauty channels put out by independent producers, often young women under the age of 25. The top 10 are all YouTube partners and most of them got a very early start on YouTube. Typically, they've been creating their own videos for at least one and a half years.

We've ranked this list by total number of subscribers because 'total views' is not a number that YouTube releases. One would have to manually add up all views on all videos for each of these channels in order to rank the leaders by total views.

The clear winner here in numbers of subscribers is Panacea81. Panacea (Lauren Luke) is a truly beautiful and very likable young single mother based in the UK. She started her YouTube channel in June of last year and has uploaded 175 videos since then. She has over 93,000 loyal subscribers! This is really an amazing achievement for one woman when you consider that Ford Models, with their huge resources and world's most beautiful models have only 40,000 subscribers. Her top three videos have received a combined 3.5 million views. She is the 39th most subscribed partner on YouTube (for all categories). See a short video by BBC about her and her success on YouTube. Luke has recently been approached by a makeup company in New York to create her own makeup line.

Pursebuzz takes second place on our list. She got her start on YouTube in January 2007 and has put out 253 videos on makeup and hairstyling. Pursebuzz has 50,000 subscribers which makes her the 84th most subscribed partner (for all categories) on YouTube of all time. Her top three video views add up to about 5.3 million views (surpassing even Panacea).

3) Fafinettex3 has over 32,000 subscribers. She started her channel this year, in February and has already produced 142 beauty-related videos. Her top three videos have gotten over 850,000 views in total so far. Her name is Aubrey and she is only 20 years old.

4) enKoreMakeup is the only male makeup artist on this list of ten ten. He joined youTube just over a year ago and has produced 183 makeup videos. He has over 24,000 subscribers. Check out his latest collaborative video made with Pursebuzz.

5) Threadbanger is a bit of an oddity on this top ten list as it is not makeup related. But it's about beauty in fashion, specifically how to make your own clothes. Threadbanger has over 20,000 subscribers and has produced 183 videos since March 2007.

6) kuuipo1207 is a full-time domestic goddess and has made 68 videos and has almost 17,000 subscribers. Her real name is Francine and she says she's a bit of a MAC makeup freak. Her last video was produced over a month ago so her fans have to get on her case soon.

7) Leesha has over 15,000 subscribers. She started her channel in March of 2007 and has produced 117 videos. She loves makeup and making video tutorials, her other hobby is making bows. Her top three videos have gotten 780,000 views in total.

Amy04 is produced by Amy. She is only 20 years old. She has almost 10,000 subscribers and has uploaded 103 videos on makeup application and tips. Amy is a college student and creates these YouTube tutorials in her spare time.

9) Julieg713 is produced by Julie, age 23. She's completed 40 videos and has almost 8,000 subscribers. Her number one beauty tip is to remind people to smile. Her most viewed video is on how to get the Kim Kardashian Smokey Eye (about 65,000 views) and her top three videos have been viewed about 150,000 times.

Makeupsquare is the top tenth beauty channel on our list. She joined YouTube a year ago and has produced 80 videos. She has about 7,500 loyal subscribers. Her top three videos have been viewed about 100,000 times in total to date.

We have defined these top ten beauty video sites as 'YouTube channels'. But in reality, what they possibly represent is the new international networks (TV on-demand) of the 21st century. The viewership potential for these ambitious and talented pioneer YouTube producers seems phenomenal.